Esperance Rifle Club prepares for weekend of action
The long weekend is shaping up to be a big one for the Esperance Rifle Club. The Annual Picnic Shoot is earmarked to happen on February 29 and March 1, with crack shots coming from all over the state. Preparation has been going on over the last few weeks with a massive clean-up of the range.
Mowing of shooting mounds, refurbishment of targets with the fitting of new cassette centres for a solid sound chamber to record shots accurately on the Kongsberg Electronic target system. The magic touch of Dalene Mortimer with the food for the visitors along with her trusty band of long term helpers is well in hand.
The introduction of the National Rifle Association of Australia scoring system due to the hard work of Ellen Moffat, Kim Harp, Gerry Harp and John Stuart, the computer geeks have it sorted with necessary boosters in place to pick up the signals for the computer with certainty for the competition.
A huge thanks goes out to those people who have given their time and expertise to the running of this event. The Esperance Rifle Club has on average fifty competitors for the event and looking forward to some fierce competition over the two days.
Last Saturday saw the club test the refurbished targets at 600 yards with a regular club shoot. The targets worked flawlessly with a number of excellent results coming forward. None better than Adrian Moffat, recording the elusive double possible in F open division. His score of 120.11 just good enough to win the day from Martin Viviers with 119.8, followed by Ray Hurley with 119.8 by countback.
It's a tough job at the top and Moffat won out Saturday. Leith Hill also scored well with a second detail possible and 118.7 overall leaving John Stuart with a new barrel fitted and blowing out cases with a score of 110.7 and a smile on his face with the prospects of the new barrel possibilities.
Hunting Class saw Gerry Harp enjoying the day scoring 98.7 with a 10 shot possible 50.5 in his second detail and Andy Nolan managed a couple 47's. 47.5 and 47.1. FTR saw Steve Mortimer record 115.6 and Joel Wickstein recorded a 116.9 for his two details.
F Standard had 4 competitors with Mike Henley winning the day with 117.9 followed by Brian Bridges with 117.8 the Ellen Moffat scoring 116.9 leaving Shane Mortimer also running a new barrel in scoring 108.5 from a possible 120. Graham Donovan managed 49.3 and 47.6 in the frontal fishtail breeze for the 600 yards detail.
Handicap winners for the event had Adrian Moffat in front with 102 followed by Martin Viviers 101 on count back from Ellen Moffat also with 101.
So the stage is set for the Picnic shoot with all the ducks in a row and the club is looking forward to a smooth running event which is the second major event on the West Australian Rifle Associations calendar for 2020.